The Witch's Life" When I was a child there was an old woman in our neighborhood whom we called The Witch. All day she peered from her second story window from behind the wrinkled curtains and sometimes she would open the window and yell: Get out of my life! She had hair like kelp and a voice like a boulder. I think of her sometimes now and wonder if I am becoming her.
My heart is on a budget._x000D_ It keeps me on the brink.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that the speaker is cautious about their emotional investments, limiting their openness to love.
Anne Sexton's quote reflects the idea that love requires careful consideration and emotional management. By stating 'My heart is on a budget,' she implies that her capacity to love is restricted, emphasizing the fragility and risk associated with deeply caring for others. The image of being 'on the brink' suggests that while she has the potential for profound feelings, there is also a constant tension and fear of overextending herself emotionally, leading to potential hurt.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a romantic relationship, during an open discussion about emotional availability, one might use this quote to express caution.
More from Anne Sexton
All quotes →Do you like me?” No answer. Silence bounced, fell off his tongue and sat between us and clogged my throat. It slaughtered my trust. It tore cigarettes out of my mouth. We exchanged blind words, and I did not cry, I did not beg, but blackness filled my ears, blackness lunged in my heart, and something that had been good, a sort of kindly oxygen, turned into a gas oven.
Don't bite till you know if it's bread or stone.
Abundance is scooped from abundance yet abundance remains.
I find now, swallowing one teaspoon of pain, that it drops downward to the past where it mixes with last year’s cupful and downward into a decade’s quart and downward into a lifetime’s ocean. I alternate treading water and deadman’s float.
I am your dwarf. I am the enemy within. I am the boss of your dreams. See. Your hand shakes. It is not palsy or booze. It is your Doppelganger trying to get out. Beware...Beware...
Similar quotes
Learn to share your love with others, but keep part of this love for yourself
In our darkest hour, in my deepest despair,_x000D_ Will you still care? Will you be there?_x000D_ In my trials and my tribulations,_x000D_ Through our doubts and frustrations,_x000D_ In my violence and my turbulence,_x000D_ Through my fear and my confessions,_x000D_ And my anguish and my pain,_x000D_ Through my joy and my sorrow,_x000D_ In the promise of another tomorrow,_x000D_ I'll never let you part,_x000D_ For you're always in my heart.
I am too pure for you or anyone.
My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.
I long for You so much_x000D_ _x000D_ I follow barefoot Your frozen tracks_x000D_ _x000D_ That are high in the mountains_x000D_ _x000D_ That I know are years old._x000D_ _x000D_ I long for You so much_x000D_ _x000D_ I have even begun to travel_x000D_ _x000D_ Where I have never been before.
There,” she said softly. “Now he could be sleeping.